Deceased Pregnant Activist Honored as Pro-Life Person of the Year

Kortney Blythe Gordon was a dedicated pro-life activist before both she and her unborn child were killed in a car accident in October. Operation Rescue announced Thursday that Gordon was being posthumously awarded with the 2011 Pro-Life Person of the Year Malachi Award.

"Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament and Malachi means 'my messenger,' and over the years Operation Rescue has given this award out to various people, but mostly those that have shown exemplary pro-life passion,” Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, told The Christian Post on Thursday.

“Kortney was one of those people that we should all aspire to be. She lived sacrificially, she lived the pro-life ethic in everything that she did, she gave sacrificially of her time and resources to the pro-life movement. She loved the babies."

Gordon served as the field director of Students for Life in America (SFLA), a job in which she trained and encouraged student pro-life leaders. From September 2006 to May 2009, she also served as the director of Campus Life Tours with the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, a sister organization to Operation Rescue.

Newman says Gordon was a good friend on both a personal and professional level.

"There wasn't anything about Kortney that wasn't 100 percent pro-life, and I hope that her memory will inspire a generation of young people to take up that same banner and move forward," he said.

The car accident she and her unborn daughter, who she had already named Sophy, were killed in, also claimed the life of another SFLA staff member, Jon Scharfenberger.

An honorable mention for the pro-life award was given to R. Seth Williams, a Philadelphia district attorney who investigated and charged abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell and nine others for allegedly murdering a woman and killing “viable, moving, breathing babies who were born alive,” according to a court document.

Operation Rescue says Williams' work to bring Gosnell and his staff to justice has brought national attention to the abuses and corruption associated with abortion.

Heading into the new year, Newman says there are two major issues the pro-life movement faces in 2012. First, pro-life laws that have already been written and enacted need to be enforced, and second, organizations like Operation Rescue need to continue to work toward “defunding” Planned Parenthood.

LifeSiteNews.com reported in November that Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards described 2011 as “the most difficult year in our history” in a Thanksgiving note to supporters. According to the Susan B. Anthony List, Planned Parenthood has lost a total of over $61 million in funding this year between nine different states.

Newman says it was one of the best years, legislatively, for the pro-life movement.

"I think 2011 will go down as a pivotal moment in pro-life history, as the year we seriously turned the corner and turned the tables on the abortion cartel,” he said.